Objective:
The overall project goal is to develop new technologies for producing commercially viable functional ingredients that promote human health and wellness from bioactive rich byproducts of the grain-milling industry. Our proposed research is built on the successful developments of the Trim Technologies in prior project research cycles that are marketed globally and generate millions of dollars in annual sales. The goal of this project plan is to be implemented through the following specific objectives: Objective 1: Develop new health promoting bioactive hydrosol products and functional soluble dietary fiber compositions by fractionation and enzymatic modification technologies; Objective 2: Characterize the biological activity of the new health promoting bioactive hydrosols and soluble dietary fibers compositions; Objective 3: Examine efficient enzyme systems for polysaccharide fragmentation with analysis and testing including in vitro and extended shelf-life experiments with collaborators from academia, industry and other ARS locations; Objective 4: Create biobased nano- or micro- composites by interacting nano- or micro- particles with newly developed biobased hydrosols and soluble fibers to improve health benefits for humans including the elderly, obese and children; Objective 5: Evaluate the newly created health promoting compositions in food uses and engage end user stakeholder groups in collaborative projects for technology transfer activities of the technologies and associated products.

Approach:
Wholegrain cereal foods and other cereal products contain important sources of phyto-protective and other bioactive components that can occur in short supply in the diets of many consumers of developed nations. The long term goal of this project is to promote optimal health and wellness by creating innovative and economically viable food ingredients from cereal grains. By using scientific and technological conversion of cereal milling byproducts, it is proposed that suitable ingredients can be prepared for incorporation into functional foods. The specific hypothesis is that the conversion of cereal milling byproducts into bioactive functional ingredients will lead to creating natural hydrosol (e.g. colloid solution) and soluble fiber compositions that should be suitable and desirable for use in functional foods. We base that hypothesis on the following observations: 1) cereal milling byproducts contain large quantities of bioactive and phyto-protective compounds; 2) research on phytochemical enrichment and extraction has proven that physical, chemical and enzymatic treatment can produce phyto-protective and bioactive rich materials as food ingredients. They do not appear to interfere with processing/manufacturing properties and sensory profiles in functional food formulations. Based on these observations, we propose basic and applied research on these functional ingredients to be created from the cereal milled byproducts by determining their processing parameters and structure/property characteristics. Furthermore, structural and physical properties also will be determined by using microscopy, SEM, X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, RVA, NMR and DSC. They also will be evaluated for their biological activities, chemical and processing properties for applications in functional foods. The proposed project will build upon our prior successes with the Trim products, a series of widely commercialized functional ingredients produced from cereal grains. This proposal will help with the continued advancement in food science that has moved the food industry along from just identifying and correcting nutritional deficiencies to creating functional foods that promote optimal health and wellness.